Answer:
Hypothesis: High school graduation rate does not have an effect on the rate of crime in the society
Independent variable: Rate of high school graduation
Dependent variable: crime
Existing data: Crime data/reports (for the duration of interest) from different (randomized) police stations and the High school graduation rate data/information (for the same duration of interest) from the schools in the same jurisdictions as the police stations.
Explanation:
1) Before conducting an experiment, a hypothesis has to be put forward. This hypothesis is then proven or unproven by the outcome of the experiment. One of the best ways of proposing a hypothesis is the use of null hypothesis, which suggests that there is no significant difference or "connection" between two variables. Here, the null hypothesis can be "High school graduation rate does not have an effect on the rate of crime in the society"
2) An independent variable is a variable whose variation is not determined or thought to be determined by the change(s) in the other variable. Here, high school graduation rate is not determined or thought to be determined by the other variable.
3) A dependent variable is a variable whose variation is predicted to be as a result of the change(s) in the other variable. Here, the rate of crime is predicted to be as a result of the high school graduation rate
4) Existing/available data that can be used to examine the hypothesis proposed earlier can be obtained from the crime data/reports (for the duration of interest) from different (randomized) police stations and the High school graduation rate data/information (for the same duration of interest) from the schools in the same jurisdictions as the police stations.
